Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / This thesis uses a political ecology framework to critically analyse how development and environmental orthodoxies influence the use, management and development of living aquatic resources in an information poor developing country context. The research focuses specifically on Lao PDR, the only landlocked country of the Mekong River Basin, to question how knowledge over living aquatic resources is framed by a range of stakeholders. Specific attention is given to how aquaculture has gained ascendancy over capture fisheries in the rhetoric of resources users as well as government and nongovernment organisations. The empirical research focuses on the role of broad scale economic, social and environmental influences over resource use, the practical and perceived importance of both aquaculture and capture fisheries in rural Lao livelihoods and finally, how living aquatic resources are represented within the dominant development agendas of conservation, poverty alleviation and rural development. Field work was conducted in Savannakhet province in Southern Lao PDR over 18 months from 2001 to 2002. The thesis has a strong empirical research base divided into activities carried out over multiple scales ranging from household to the Mekong River Basin. The thesis begins by establishing the historical context of resource use as well as the major orthodoxies on which development is based. Attention then turns to the extensive empirical research conducted over three districts of Savannakhet province. The results of the empirical research report two macro scale studies at the district level. The first is a survey of fish ponds across three districts focusing on the spatial distribution of investment and resource use. The second is a survey of fish trade focusing on the differential trade between culture and capture fish species. The results of both studies highlight the disjuncture between complex patterns of aquaculture and capture fishery use and the major assumptions made about the use of these two resources by policy makers and management. Analysis then moves to the local level focusing on the role and importance of aquaculture and capture fisheries to the livelihoods of rural Lao communities. The results show the instrumental and hermeneutic importance of fish and other aquatic resources in the livelihoods of households and the community. In particular it is shown that capture fisheries are more important to rural livelihoods in terms of income and nutrition, while aquaculture is perceived as a more important activity in the development of community and household economies. ii The final section then compares the empirical findings of the thesis with the policy and planning agendas of government and non-government organisations. The analysis focuses on the role of ideas and agency creating a highly politicised policy environment concluding that aquaculture based policy is more compatible with both government and non government agendas of poverty alleviation and rural development than capture fisheries. Furthermore, capture fisheries are marginalised within conservation as a resource that cannot contribute to the improvement of livelihoods or alleviate poverty. The thesis concludes that living aquatic resources provide an imperative source of food and income to rural communities through diverse and complex human-environment interactions. In contrast government and non-government organisations operating at regional, national and local scales of policy and planning simplify these relationships drawing on wider orthodoxies of aquaculture and capture fisheries development. These simplifications do not reflect the problems and needs of the predominantly rural population. Furthermore, in the absence of a strong empirical base of information, living aquatic resources management and development has become highly politicised. Instead of responding to the realities of resource users, policy and planning reflect the interests and beliefs of development organisations, government and non-government. The thesis provides an important, grounded account of the importance of living aquatic resources to rural livelihoods in Lao PDR and how these resources are understood and translated into national development and management agendas. In doing so the thesis contributes to an understanding of how complex human-environmental systems are perceived and represented in development policy and wider knowledge systems. The thesis also makes an important theoretical contribution to the growing body of literature on critical political ecology by arguing for the revitalisation of ecology as an integrated approach within political ecology and more widely within the study of humanenvironment interaction.

Impending natural resources development and concern about the effects of climate change have spurred increased efforts to study and monitor aquatic habitats in the Mackenzie River system. As part of Environment Canada’s attempt to survey the system in advance of the construction of the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline, benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled at 50 streams spanning the geographical range of the Mackenzie system in the Northwest Territories, Canada, to assess spatial patterns in diversity and assemblage structure and the environmental factors driving them. Replicated, quantitative D-net samples were collected during the late summer of 2005 through 2008, mostly at crossings of the proposed pipeline route. 373 macroinvertebrate taxa were recorded, mainly aquatic insects, which were identified to the genus or species levels; other groups were identified to higher taxonomic levels. Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera diversity declined along a latitudinal gradient, while Trichoptera diversity declined in the middle of the latitudinal range and rose towards the far north. Chironomidae (Diptera) increased in diversity and abundance towards the far north, becoming dominant in the northern sub-arctic forest and lowland tundra of the Mackenzie Delta. Diversity, measured as the average generic richness per stream, correlated with a composite environmental variable representing stream size, but not much else; spatial trends in local generic richness were only apparent in the far north of the study area. Regional diversity was assessed using rarefaction curves and showed a clear decrease from south to north across the study area for most taxa; the major exception was the chironomid subfamilies Orthocladiinae and Chironomini, the former being diverse throughout the study area and the latter increasing in diversity on the tundra. Odonata, Hemiptera and Coleoptera were well-represented in the south of the study area, but decreased sharply in diversity and abundance in the north; another common order, Megaloptera, was entirely absent from the study area, as were crayfish. Community composition varied along a latitudinal gradient, with some species restricted to northern latitudes and many more species restricted to the southern areas. Composition varied by region, as did the environmental factors that control it. Streams in the north of the system are connected to hundreds of small lakes and tend to freeze in the winter, which increases habitat stability; assemblages in this region were characterized by relatively large chironomids that are usually associated with lentic habitats and by a lack of taxa that are intolerant to freezing. Substrate was the main factor explaining differences in assemblage composition in this region. Just to the south, alluvial streams are more common and permafrost is continuous with very shallow active layers, iv which likely results in intense discharge peaks and ice scour in the spring and flashy summer hydrographs. Invertebrates in this region were mainly short-lived, small sized orthoclads, baetids and chloroperlids; the annual disturbance regime seems likely to be an important factor shaping community composition in this region. Many streams in this region received input from saline springs, resulting in perennial flow, and these streams harboured several taxa that were absent or rare in other streams at similar latitudes, including several stoneflies (e.g. Pteronarcys, Sweltsa); the presence of flow during the winter was found to be a major factor affecting community composition in this region, which surrounded the town of Norman Wells, NT. Nutrient dynamics appeared to be important in structuring benthic assemblages in the southern portion of the study region, with highnutrient streams supporting a diverse fauna which included many taxa that were absent in the north, while communities in low-nutrient streams were more similar to the northern alluvial stream fauna. There was no spatial distinction between low- and high-nutrient streams in the southern region, and the difference may be due to the local conditions of permafrost, which is patchy and discontinuous in the region. Evidence that winter ice and permafrost conditions are important drivers of benthic invertebrate diversity and community composition in the Mackenzie system, along with the latitudinal gradients which are consistent with a temperature/climate gradient, raises the possibility that benthic assemblages may be useful as indicators of effects of global climate change on freshwater habitats in the Canadian north. More immediately, construction of the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline may affect stream habitat due to sedimentation, and plans for the operation of the pipeline have raised concerns about potential effects on permafrost conditions. Implications for development of a biomonitoring program utilizing benthic invertebrates and their potential as indicators of climate change are discussed.

Impending natural resources development and concern about the effects of climate change have spurred increased efforts to study and monitor aquatic habitats in the Mackenzie River system. As part of Environment Canada’s attempt to survey the system in advance of the construction of the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline, benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled at 50 streams spanning the geographical range of the Mackenzie system in the Northwest Territories, Canada, to assess spatial patterns in diversity and assemblage structure and the environmental factors driving them. Replicated, quantitative D-net samples were collected during the late summer of 2005 through 2008, mostly at crossings of the proposed pipeline route. 373 macroinvertebrate taxa were recorded, mainly aquatic insects, which were identified to the genus or species levels; other groups were identified to higher taxonomic levels. Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera diversity declined along a latitudinal gradient, while Trichoptera diversity declined in the middle of the latitudinal range and rose towards the far north. Chironomidae (Diptera) increased in diversity and abundance towards the far north, becoming dominant in the northern sub-arctic forest and lowland tundra of the Mackenzie Delta. Diversity, measured as the average generic richness per stream, correlated with a composite environmental variable representing stream size, but not much else; spatial trends in local generic richness were only apparent in the far north of the study area. Regional diversity was assessed using rarefaction curves and showed a clear decrease from south to north across the study area for most taxa; the major exception was the chironomid subfamilies Orthocladiinae and Chironomini, the former being diverse throughout the study area and the latter increasing in diversity on the tundra. Odonata, Hemiptera and Coleoptera were well-represented in the south of the study area, but decreased sharply in diversity and abundance in the north; another common order, Megaloptera, was entirely absent from the study area, as were crayfish. Community composition varied along a latitudinal gradient, with some species restricted to northern latitudes and many more species restricted to the southern areas. Composition varied by region, as did the environmental factors that control it. Streams in the north of the system are connected to hundreds of small lakes and tend to freeze in the winter, which increases habitat stability; assemblages in this region were characterized by relatively large chironomids that are usually associated with lentic habitats and by a lack of taxa that are intolerant to freezing. Substrate was the main factor explaining differences in assemblage composition in this region. Just to the south, alluvial streams are more common and permafrost is continuous with very shallow active layers, iv which likely results in intense discharge peaks and ice scour in the spring and flashy summer hydrographs. Invertebrates in this region were mainly short-lived, small sized orthoclads, baetids and chloroperlids; the annual disturbance regime seems likely to be an important factor shaping community composition in this region. Many streams in this region received input from saline springs, resulting in perennial flow, and these streams harboured several taxa that were absent or rare in other streams at similar latitudes, including several stoneflies (e.g. Pteronarcys, Sweltsa); the presence of flow during the winter was found to be a major factor affecting community composition in this region, which surrounded the town of Norman Wells, NT. Nutrient dynamics appeared to be important in structuring benthic assemblages in the southern portion of the study region, with highnutrient streams supporting a diverse fauna which included many taxa that were absent in the north, while communities in low-nutrient streams were more similar to the northern alluvial stream fauna. There was no spatial distinction between low- and high-nutrient streams in the southern region, and the difference may be due to the local conditions of permafrost, which is patchy and discontinuous in the region. Evidence that winter ice and permafrost conditions are important drivers of benthic invertebrate diversity and community composition in the Mackenzie system, along with the latitudinal gradients which are consistent with a temperature/climate gradient, raises the possibility that benthic assemblages may be useful as indicators of effects of global climate change on freshwater habitats in the Canadian north. More immediately, construction of the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline may affect stream habitat due to sedimentation, and plans for the operation of the pipeline have raised concerns about potential effects on permafrost conditions. Implications for development of a biomonitoring program utilizing benthic invertebrates and their potential as indicators of climate change are discussed.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2001. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

(M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes special report entitled: Building systems and materials for assembly construction. Includes bibliographical references.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / This thesis uses a political ecology framework to critically analyse how development and environmental orthodoxies influence the use, management and development of living aquatic resources in an information poor developing country context. The research focuses specifically on Lao PDR, the only landlocked country of the Mekong River Basin, to question how knowledge over living aquatic resources is framed by a range of stakeholders. Specific attention is given to how aquaculture has gained ascendancy over capture fisheries in the rhetoric of resources users as well as government and nongovernment organisations. The empirical research focuses on the role of broad scale economic, social and environmental influences over resource use, the practical and perceived importance of both aquaculture and capture fisheries in rural Lao livelihoods and finally, how living aquatic resources are represented within the dominant development agendas of conservation, poverty alleviation and rural development. Field work was conducted in Savannakhet province in Southern Lao PDR over 18 months from 2001 to 2002. The thesis has a strong empirical research base divided into activities carried out over multiple scales ranging from household to the Mekong River Basin. The thesis begins by establishing the historical context of resource use as well as the major orthodoxies on which development is based. Attention then turns to the extensive empirical research conducted over three districts of Savannakhet province. The results of the empirical research report two macro scale studies at the district level. The first is a survey of fish ponds across three districts focusing on the spatial distribution of investment and resource use. The second is a survey of fish trade focusing on the differential trade between culture and capture fish species. The results of both studies highlight the disjuncture between complex patterns of aquaculture and capture fishery use and the major assumptions made about the use of these two resources by policy makers and management. Analysis then moves to the local level focusing on the role and importance of aquaculture and capture fisheries to the livelihoods of rural Lao communities. The results show the instrumental and hermeneutic importance of fish and other aquatic resources in the livelihoods of households and the community. In particular it is shown that capture fisheries are more important to rural livelihoods in terms of income and nutrition, while aquaculture is perceived as a more important activity in the development of community and household economies. ii The final section then compares the empirical findings of the thesis with the policy and planning agendas of government and non-government organisations. The analysis focuses on the role of ideas and agency creating a highly politicised policy environment concluding that aquaculture based policy is more compatible with both government and non government agendas of poverty alleviation and rural development than capture fisheries. Furthermore, capture fisheries are marginalised within conservation as a resource that cannot contribute to the improvement of livelihoods or alleviate poverty. The thesis concludes that living aquatic resources provide an imperative source of food and income to rural communities through diverse and complex human-environment interactions. In contrast government and non-government organisations operating at regional, national and local scales of policy and planning simplify these relationships drawing on wider orthodoxies of aquaculture and capture fisheries development. These simplifications do not reflect the problems and needs of the predominantly rural population. Furthermore, in the absence of a strong empirical base of information, living aquatic resources management and development has become highly politicised. Instead of responding to the realities of resource users, policy and planning reflect the interests and beliefs of development organisations, government and non-government. The thesis provides an important, grounded account of the importance of living aquatic resources to rural livelihoods in Lao PDR and how these resources are understood and translated into national development and management agendas. In doing so the thesis contributes to an understanding of how complex human-environmental systems are perceived and represented in development policy and wider knowledge systems. The thesis also makes an important theoretical contribution to the growing body of literature on critical political ecology by arguing for the revitalisation of ecology as an integrated approach within political ecology and more widely within the study of humanenvironment interaction.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Botany Dept., 1986. / Offprint of the author's journal article in pocket. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-193).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stevens Point, 2007 / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-49).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2002. / Advisor: Jurek Kolasa. Includes bibliographical references. Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2002. / Advisor: Jurek Kolasa. Includes bibliographical references. Also available via World Wide Web.